



/ 



' 185 
R45 
opy 1 






•n ^ 



831 



TECHNOLOGY AND CIVILIZATION, 



BY 



F. REULEAUX. 



FROM THE SMITHSONIAN REPORT FOR 1890. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
1891. 



^> 



831 



TECHNOLOGY AND CIVILIZATION, 



BY 



F. REULEAUX. 



FROM THE SMITHSONIAN REPORT FOR 1890. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

1891. 






6 

^ 






TECHNOLOGY AND CIVILIZATION.* 



By F. Keuleaux. 



From the present status of the world's culture, one can not fail to 
discern the significant influence of our scientific technology in qualifying 
us for greater achievements than the past centuries have yet witnessed, 
whether in connection with rapid transit by land or sea, tunneling 
mountains, piercing the air, making the lightning our message- bearer 
from pole to pole or sending our voices across the land ; or whether, 
indeed, from another point of view we bring into our service the mighty 
mechanical powers, or adapt and make use of those intangible contriv- 
ances usually unnoticed by the world at large. 

Everywhere in modern life, about us, in us, with us, beside us, is felt 
the influence of scientific art acting as an agent and as companion, 
whose ceaseless service we never realize until for a moment it fails us. 

Commonplace though this be, still it seems to me that in the cultured 
world and perhaps in the narrower circles of scientific men, this truth 
is too slightly valued. The value of scientific technology in its true 
character as producer and promoter of civilization, is too little recog- 
nized. 

This may result from a confusion of the so-called technical with the 
unscientific ; or on the other hand, from concealment of its results under 
a preponderating mass of idealism, its development being cramped by 
ambition for gain and trammeled by social evils, which go hand in hand 
with industrial labor. But I will not here consider this side of the 
question. I would attempt a nearer approach to the inner sanctuary 
of technology to certain weighty questions, which appear especially 
deserving of present notice, as : 

What place, particularly in associate working, the technology of our 
day takes in civilization? A place not so well defined, it appears to me, 
as is that we assign to less important social, political, and scientific 
events. 

Again, a question occurs as to the chief features of the method fol- 
lowed by technology to attain its ends, and concerning the plan which 



* Tictnslated from Prometheus (Berlin), 1890, vol. I, pp. 625, 641. and 666. 

H. Mis. 129 45 705 



706 TECHNOLOGY AND CIVILIZATION. 

must more or less underlie device and invention ; a question -which 
(especially for patent legislation) has long employed and must long 
contiuue to employ the scientist as well as the administrative practi- 
tioner. 

If we will compare our civilization with that of other nations we must 
understandingly glance at the people and their pursuits, which we find 
upon the lowest stratum ; for example, those who, lacking a knowl- 
edge of writing, that wondrous thought transmitter, have, of course, 
no care for science. In this comparison one will soon encounter peoples 
whom a high culture has for centuries, yes, thousands of centuries, 
been a part. These are the peoples of eastern and southern Asia, the 
Chinese, Japanese, people of India, the Persians, and Arabians. Noting 
without prejudice their culture, we must concede them to be in a state 
of high development, indeed to have been highly developed, when mid- 
dle Europe still remained deep in barbarism. Even then science and 
art flourished among them, and is still advancing. 

For 3,000 years the Indian Yedas have devoutly proclaimed the 
Deity; 2,000 years ago the Indian poets produced their odyssey the 
" Mahabharata" — the great Bharata, the forerunner of many dramas, 
among them the tender " Sakuutala," the charm of which is still potent 
since its sentiments found their origin in the heart of man. Philosophy 
flourished likewise, and the science of language in so great degree that 
the Indian grammarians of to-day can look back upon an unbroken line 
of predecessors, the vista terminating in Panini, whom they reverence 
like a god. Mathematics, too, were fostered, and to-day we write our 
numbers in Indian characters. In parts of India and in eastern Asia 
the commercial arts progressed then as now. Persia, too, was laurel- 
crowned among the world's poets. Following the great Firdousi came 
the "Horaz" of Schiras, and in his footsteps Hafis sung his immortal 
songs, all of which have become a part of our literary treasure through 
the sesame of translation. And the Arabian literature, to which we 
have not yet had access in its entirety, how has it laid under tribute 
the Grecian inheritance, and so perfected astronomy that at the pres- 
ent time we name half the heavens after them. How, under the patient 
and studious princes of the time of Charles, did they foster the growth 
of arithmetical and still deeper science ! How too have they surpassed 
our knowledge of chemistry in various substances and essences! 

What is then the spiritual difference which sunders their path from 
ours ? Are we in certain arts still behind them ? They are brave sol- 
diers, gentle and industrious citizens, wise statesmen and scholars ; 
honor and justice hold high rank among them. Where then, considered 
as men, lie the points of difference ? 

Or, on the other hand, do we question whether the spiritual bounda- 
ries lead to the good, and would we fain know whence springs our 
superiority over them % 

How is it possible, for example, that England with a few thousand of 



TECHNOLOGY AND CIVILIZATION. 707 

her own troops, rules the two hundred millions of India; how was it 
possible for her to remain victor in opposition to their terrific and fanat- 
ical revolt in 1857? How does it happen that we, Europeans or (not 
particularly to mention the European-settled America,) that the At- 
lantic nations alone compass the earth with railroads, surround it with 
telegraph lines, traverse its water girdle with mighty ships, and that 
to all this the other five-sixths of the earth's inhabitants have not added 
a span — the same five-sixths which still, for the greater part, are 
grandly organized and highly cultivated? 

There are different ways of explaining this astonishing fact, or rather, 
of at least attempting to determine it comprehensively. Klemm, the 
industrious Leipsic collector, who was a pre-historian long before the 
discovery of pile habitations, has propounded the distinction between 
" active 77 and " passive" peoples ; and many to-day follow him therein. 
To him the Atlantic nations are the active ; all others, down to the utterly 
uncultivated, the passive. According to this theory we make history, 
they suffer it. Although this discrimination appears to have so much 
in its favor it does not hold. Nations can (as history teaches) be a 
long time active, then passive, and later again active. Activity and 
passivity are not to nations indwelling characteristics, but circum- 
stances into which and out of which they can fall without changing 
their spiritual, essential position. One proof of reality the Klemm 
theory does not stand. Europe could, to-morrow, unyoked from Asia, 
be made passive without losing the character which makes railroads, 
steamships and telegraphs belong to her as her spiritual possession. 
The Arabian, on the contrary, could destroy the products of scientific 
technology as the pretended Omar the books, but would not be able to 
re-produce them, as has many times been done in case of the books. 

Others have supposed, and still believe, that it is Christianity that 
establishes the distinction. 

This however does not stand the test. Of course a considerable part 
of the thinking which resulted in metamorphosed inventions and 
discoveries was done in the Christian empire, but by no means all. 
What an innovation was made by the art of printing, and yet we 
know that 1,000 years earlier the Chinese had found a way to this art. 
Gunpowder, too, that marks so decisive a step in the progress of our 
civilization, was used by the Arabians long before the time of the 
Freiburg monks. Then in mechanics we find those important power 
machines, the water wheels, are very old and of Asiatic origin. 

But passing from these examples to a genuine offspring of Europe, 
the steam-engine, watching its gradual development up to its actual 
use — the time of the Renaissance — in Italy, Germany, France, and 
England, but never outside of Christendom, even this, we find, does 
not encounter progress, but on the contrary, its adherents often oppose 
it up to the last. 

We look further and do we not find to-day Christians living in the 



r 



70S TECHNOLOGY AND CIVILIZATION. 

East, for example, in Armenia and in Abyssinia, entirely outside the 
contemplation of our victorious modern technology ? In the past they 
have added naught thereto and to-day they are not its contributors. 

It can not be the things themselves, the inventions, but the engen- 
dering thought which must have produced the change, the innovation. 
In fact we can but ascribe this to a peculiar progress in thought 
precedence, a difficult, dangerous ascent to a higher, freer comprehen- 
sion of nature. 

The spell which bound us was broken by our understanding when we 
found the forces of nature following in their operations no capricious 
will— a Godly will — but working according to steadfast, unchangeable 
laws — the laws of nature ; never otherwise. 

According to laws mighty, fixed, eternal, 
Must we complete our being's circle 

breathe Goethe's words from out the terrors of nature's inexorable 
power. But according to "laws mighty, fixed, eternal" roll the worlds, 
the stars pursue their course, a tile falls from the roof or a drop from 
its cloud height. 

Suns wander up and down, 
Worlds go and come again, 
And this no wish can alter. 

In this grand poetical form is seized the same uplifting knowledge 
that not the bodily but the spiritual force incloses within itself the pre- 
sentiment of God, that even the world's creation consists in the immu- 
tability of its laws. That it might win the knowledge, thought broke 
through the old barriers, but immediately drew from real life con- 
clusions such as these, if we may utter them quite free from secondary 
considerations. 

If we bring lifeless bodies into such circumstances that their working 
of natural laws answers our purposes, we may permit them instead of 
this labor to work for living beings. 

This began to be carried out with intelligence, and thereby was created 
our present technology. Scientific technology I must name it. When 
the spirit entertained the idea which sought to make natural laws a con- 
scious power, scarcely anything was known of these laws and they must 
first be wooed. Through hard battle indeed must they be won, for 
the learned world believed itself to have them in its possession. The 
reformer had therefore not simply to make the discovery, but to 
accomplish the gigantic task of overcoming antagonistic convictions 
and at the same time to support a spiritual campaign up to the heights 
of freer knowledge, for this march found weighty opposition in the 
decrees of the church, which had demanded its sacrifice. The victory 
was won, aud therewith our present technology gained the command. 
The opposing current of the time had spent itself, comprehending, per- 
haps, its injustice, for do not its first representatives travel as gaily 
upon the railroad, telephone, and telegraph as do others % Only small 



TECHNOLOGY AND CIVILIZATION. 709 

skirmishers exist as a reserve, and this more from stubbornness than 
conviction. At all events they do not in the least retard the chief move- 
ment. 

What had happened had the reaction of that time prevailed — for it 
was a reaction begun in Germany more than 100 years before, Coper- 
nicus having lain more than 90 years in the grave when Galileo was 
unwillingly compelled to witness against him — what had happened in 
such an event is difficult to conceive; and yet not so, for we may see it 
exemplified in the great Arabian nation. Among this people the reac- 
tion had, in truth, conquered. Their Galileos, their Averrhoes, and 
numberless others, were defeated, together with their free convictions; 
with them their entire sect, and therewith the Arabian culture, which 
already had lifted the hand to grasp the palm of victory of free knowl- 
edge, was paralyzed by the fanatical victors, and paralyzed they still lie 
low, already half a thousand years. Allah aalam ! " God alone knows," 
therefore shalt thou not desire to know ! So sounds it since then for 
the pure Mohammedan ; all investigation is cut off from him, forbidden 
and declared sinful. A noble and refined disciple of the Prophet has 
given expression to the hope that the Moslem may yet be called to take 
up the lost leadership. Who may believe him ? However, it appears 
certain that the overthrow of free thought in the Arabian language 
has become decisive for the remaining Asiatic culture. Like a dam lies 
the spiritual-slain mass between them and us, and so has it come that 
we alone have entered into the development to which the pictured 
progress of thought led the way. The powers of nature which she has 
taught us to make useful are the mechanical, physical, and chemical ; 
to permit them to work for us requires a great outfit of mathematical 
and natural science. From this entire equipment we exercise a portion 
as a privilege. 

It seems necessary, in order to briefly distinguish the two directions 
of development, to call them by particular names. The Greeks named 
an artistic mechanism, an arrangement through which the unusual could 
be conducted, a manganon, which word goes back, according to some, to 
the name of the eminent race of magicians. All kinds of definite tangi- 
ble things which were considered skillfully and wisely thought out were 
so titled ; among others, a catapult for projectiles for purposes of war. 
With this the word comes into the Middle Ages. Then, early in the sev- 
enteenth century, a great machine was invented for rolling and smooth- 
ing the washing, and since this contrivance bore a remarkable outward 
resemblance to the catapult, it was also given its name, whereupon the 
word wandered further into the remaining European tongues, as every 
house- wife knows, or perhaps does not know, if she send her washing 
to a "mangle." 

Again, for our purpose, I would generalize that old word and name, 
on the one hand, that something by means of which the forces of na- 
ture are known in her laws, manganism, and on the other, that which 



710 TECHNOLOGY AND CIVILIZATION. 

seems to stand as nature's defender, mysteriously guarding her ways, 
naturism. 

Employing for the present these terms, we shall see the peoples of 
the earth divided into manganistical and naturistical, and shall notice 
that, on account of their full understanding of their material equipment, 
the former have a powerful advantage over the latter. Indeed, we dare 
go much further and hesitate not to assert that to the manganistical 
nations belongs the domination of the earth, although now, as ever, it 
must be battled for. Still the observer may confidently predict the vic- 
tory of the manganists and that resistance can but mean either gradual 
overthrow or destruction. 

That unyielding determination makes possible the unprecedented 
step from naturism to manganism is shown in our time, a time so rich 
in culture, by the example of Japan. 

The chief men of this nation, having recognized the necessity, have 
also gained the political power for the purpose, and so transpires before 
our eyes the intelligent effort, towards which all their strength is 
directed, of systematically changing their scheme of instruction. Diffi- 
cult as is the attempt its beginning promises success, consisting as it 
does in nothing else than learning, learning, learning. 

Very gently in India the English have commenced to work towards 
manganistical education, and although all is yet in the beginning, 
great results are possible. 

It is unnecessary however to stray into distant lands to find natur- 
ism ; in Europe it is at hand, and indeed in every human being lurks a 
portion of naturism. The first touch with manganism must be through 
education, the surrender of the uncultured mass of intellect to kind na- 
ture, but subject to a firm control which shall so hold her in check as 
to prevent the ruin which would otherwise threaten in the full contact 
with fate. 

In Spain manganism has developed but slightly. The Iberian Penin- 
sula has not contributed to the great metamorphosing inventions; 
naturally the repression of thought advancement would occur more 
readily there, as at that period the new-discovered world held attention. 
The loss to Spain is, however, incalculable. 

Greece, once leading the world in arts and sciences, was at the time 
of the blossoming of scientific technology, so entangled in the result of 
her fall that the movement did not seize her. Now as a nation she 
seeks to raise herself out of naturism in order to resume the transmis- 
sion of the old spiritual activity, and we may watch with interest the 
experiment made upon the classical soil of this beautiful land. With- 
out manganism the effort must fail. 

Italy furnishes us with a striking illustration. For a longtime de- 
voted thoroughly to naturism, and also desiring her share in the great 
scientific discoveries of the Renaissance, this highly-gifted people more 
or less neglected manganism, but preserved her flowers of art, and has 



TECHNOLOGY AND CIVILIZATION. 



711 



therein sought aiui found her glory ; this neglect her new form of gov- 
ernment has caused her to recognize, as well as the necessity for its 
avoidance; consequently we see the Italians exerting themselves with 
astonishing energy to spread among themselves mangauistical indus- 
tries and qualities. That their rapid and significant progress in useful 
industries weakens their achievements in art industry can not be 
doubted. 

Like a shadow this fact flits over us, until it seems as if between the 
two directions must exist an opposition.to which one will fall a sacrifice. 
But not so ; art and scientific technology are not at variance ; it only 
requires great effort for both to be developed ; great firmness and 
spiritual insight into aesthetical laws to counterbalance the disturbing 
grasp of the machine. 

That both may develop side by side is shown by the present move- 
ment in Austria and Germany. 

Turning now to the consideration of the inner method of manganism, 
I pass over an entire line of preparatory grades, but desire to note that 
which is common to different actions, but which seems to the outside 
world contradictory. Such generalizing shortens, but is necessary in 
order to make clearer the influx of new appearances in the technical 
kingdom. For the purpose of making these certain, efficient and intel- 
ligent, it may be permitted to employ a few simple examples : 





Fig. 2. 



Fig. 1. 

The cog-wheel a, Fig. 1, catching in the usual manner in the cogs of 
the bar at 2, is rotated at 1 in the stationary frame c, in which also at 
3, the cog-bar b slides, this bar, a very long one, being pulled down by 
a weight B. 

Imagining the wheel a so turned as to raise the weight B, or in such 
manner as to lower it, we have before us an efficient machine of a defi- 
nite kind, viz, one of continuous direction of motion whether forward 
or backward. We will call it, because of this continuous motion, a 
running work (Laufwerke). As is well known, there are many running 
works; among them friction wheels, cog-wheels, beltings, turbines, 



712 TECHNOLOGY AND CIVILIZATION. 

etc., in many different combinations. Opposed to this mechanism is 
another of a different motion ; of this Fig. 2 furnishes an example. 
The wheel a turns 1, in a fixed frame and has saw or similar shaped 
teeth in which, at 2, a ratchet catches. This ratchet hinders the wheel 
from following the pulling of the weight A at the margin of the wheel 
a. But if the wheel be turned as we wind a cord, 4, on which hangs the 
weight, the ratchet permits the wheel to go forward but retards it again 
as soon as the compelling force subsides. 

This arrangement is known as " obstruction" (Gesperre.) 

In the use just described we would call it obstructing work (Sperrwerk) ; 
its backward and forward motion varying, thus requiring it to be com- 
pletely discriminated from running work (Laufwerke). 

From the given groups of mechanisms, five others are possible. 

If we next imagine the ratchet to be raised, through pressure upon 
the button at 5, the obstruction being released, the weight A falls down, 
taking or drawing with it the wheel a. The resulting motion can be 
utilized in many ways : quickly, as through a push with a ram, slowly, 
gradually, as by a clock ; also m the running work of the telegraph, 
changing always according to supply. 

Through winding on spokes, the mechanical labor can always be use- 
fully changed. Instead of lifting a weight A, one can also place an 
elastic body, i. e., sl spring in a condition of tension. We will there- 
fore name the produced mechanism tension work (Spannwerk). The 
crossbow was a spring tension work ; there are millions of spring 
tension works in practical use in flint-locks. 

We procure a third mechanism through a slight change of the man- 
agement, namely, by allowing the ratchet that was previously released 
to be again caught. This then catches up the wheel a and with it the 
fallen weight A. A sufficiently strong structure presupposed, one can 
also make the mechanism serve for catching up heavy masses, and we 
name it accordingly catch work (Fangwerke). The mechanisms used in 
mines and also in elevators for the catching of the propellers in case of 
rope-break, are such catch work. If one considers that the wheel teeth 
can be made so fine as to be invisible, whereby the circumfereuce of the 
wheel a will be smooth and the obstructing ratchet simply a friction 
body, the obstruction changes into a friction obstruction, as one per- 
ceives iu the brake of the railroad train. The applications of. catch ivork 
are also very useful and numerous. 

A fourth mechanism one would secure out of the groups in question, 
if one attached, but on a moving arm, perhaps a second similar ratchet 
to the nearer one, fastened to it, the last having a swinging motion. 
Through this motion one can then, intermittingly, move the wheel with 
the intentiou of lifting the weight, since the first ratchet always catches 
the wheel when it begins to let the weight sink. The thus formed and 
driven mechanism is called leap ivork (Schaltwerk). Applications of 
the same are kuown and many. A fifth manner of conversion of the 



TECHNOLOGY AND CIVILIZATION. 713 

groups results, if one uses perhaps a narrow, corner-shaped segment of 
a wheel and forms with it an obstruction for the passage between the 
points 1 and 2, in the fashion, I will say, of a door. Then through clos- 
ing the obstruction at 2, the passage can be retarded or stopped ; 
through loosening, it will be opened. We will name the mechanism in 
this form, closing work (Schliesswerk). It exists in closing doors, win- 
dows, closets, chests, in the form of locks, and so on in known and 
numerous changes. We see here the wide domains of the lock, which 
offers millions, yes millionfold variations of closing work. 

The sixth, and perhaps from the standpoint of the mechanic the most 
remarkable change of the obstruction, is the checking or check work 
(Hemmwerk), as we will say. It exists if we set free the obstruction 
by light touches upon the button at 5 and immediately closing it again. 
If this occur regularly the progress of the wheel a may serve, among 
other purposes, for measuring time. In clocks this check work is largely 
used. The regular release of the obstruction takes place by means of 
an even-timed body, the pendulum. Variations of check work exist 
in many other machines. 

Thus we see there are many examples of obstruction works (Gesperr- 
werkeu), as we may call them collectively, i. e., works in which the ob- 
structing ratchet plays a part. But let us look still farther. It often 
occurs that obstruction works are combined and the action of one trans- 
mitted to the other. A fine example is furnished by the set-trigger of 
target rifles. This trigger is nothing else than a little tension work, 
very easily loosened, in consequence of which the firmer held tension 
work of the cock is loosened, one thus working upon the other. Such 
a combination we may call a tension work of a higher order, or, in case 
of a similar combining of obstruction works we speak of an obstruc- 
tion work of a higher order. An illustration is furnished by the mo- 
tive work of a clock, where the weight and spring tension work 
(Gewichts-und Fedderspannwerk) drives the obstruction work (das 
Hemmwerk), thus working in the second order. Clearly, we have here 
a principle, for the transmission of motion can occur between obstruc- 
tion work and wheel work, and so on. For example, there is attached 
to the check work of the clock a cog-wheel work which moves the 
hands. Naming motive works in general, several examples of which 
we have noticed drive works (Treibwerken), the wheel work of a clock 
must be a drive work of the third order, consisting of tension work, 
check work, and wheel-running work arranged the* one over the other. 

Having taken so broad a view in this field of observation, we turn to 
another quite different in aspect. 

If we notice our machines in practical use we find among them a 
number in which fluidity serves as force and motion transmitter, as the 
hydraulic press, the pump, spouting machines, water wheels, the tur- 
bines, etc. But not only liquid but gaseous fluids we similarly convert 
into gas motors, air machines, and especially into steam-engines. Close 



714 TECHNOLOGY AND CIVILIZATION, 

observation shows that we have subjected all these cases, inconsequence 
of the suitable inclosing' of the liquids in channels, pipes, and vessels, 
to such a forced way of motion — I at one time proposed to name it 
" forced-running " — that they are able to work in mechanisms as do firm 
bodies, but have this ad van cage of conforming themselves always to 
their surroundings. 

If we introdnce something of this kind in our running work (Fig. 1), 
replacing the cog bar by a stream of water, then our running work 
becomes a water wheel, mediocre indeed, if the water is taken as the 
driving force. It becomes a dipping wheel or spray wheel when the 
wheel a is propelling and the water b is the propelled body. 

The practice in machines leads to the same thought concerning ob- 
struction work. The obstructing ratchets are named valves when either 
the wheel a or its substitute — a section of the wheel, cog bar, etc. — 
have been converted to liquids. The valves are in reality in every 
way, try them or examine them as we will, the obstructing ratchets of 
the liquid. One observes immediately what a new, great, yes, even 
grand, enlargement has been gained by the putting into use of these 
drive works. Examples surround us, I should say crowd around us. 
Our common water-pump, with the butt of the valves and the sucking 
valve, is a water leap work prepared exactly in accordance with the 
scheme mentioned before, viz, of that leap work found in Fig. 2. Also 
in check work we find fluids, liquids, and gates taking the place of an 
ascending wheel or its substitute, as in water throwing machines and 
not less in steam-engines. 

In fact, regarding these machines as drive works, they correspond to 
clocks which I have taken as illustrations of obstruction works, the 
difference being solely that in clocks a harmful resistance, in the other 
machines a useful resistance, is overcome. Had I more time I would 
prove their similarity in all points. 

The valves, for instance, often single, but sometimes a combination 
of two or more in one machine, correspond to the so-called anchor of 
the clock check work, to the eccentric (muschelschieber) of the steam 
engine, the pendulum of the clock being represented by the vibrating 
butt, etc. 

Thus the great and powerful steam-engine legitimately and with 
perfect ease falls in the line, taking there its rightful place. And so 
must it be with scientific perception which will have to do with true, 
logical connection only (not with sensational), performing wonders. 
But in dealing with this principle we must gain one more ascent in 
order to attain the full theoretical horizon. Let us not regret the 
trifling exertion which must bring abundant reward. 

Noting, from the common standpoint, the source of power in our 
steam-engine, we find within the collected mass of stored-up steam an 
active, communicating atom force, which is an expansive power or ten- 
sion work. The boiler, too, with its valves and contrivance for letting 



TECHNOLOGY AND CIVILIZATION. 715 

off steam, is bat a tension work, differing from that previously noticed 
in tb at it lodges in a physical manner the called forth tension, making 
it, in truth, a physical tension work. This observation carries us further, 
draws us on, as it were, to the casual connection by which heat is com- 
municated to the boiler water. This connecting link is the fire, the 
glowing, flaming coal which gave up chemically, in combustion, the 
energy stored therein. Thus fire is a chemical tension ivorJc made 
active through kindling, but holding latent, if we consider it in the 
form of coal, a heat: energy stored within by nature's slow process dur- 
ing millions of years and now eagerly yielded to our simple expedient. 

Thus we have our steam-engine complete ; in the boiler fire a liberated 
chemical tension work; in the boiler itself a physical tension work 
made active by the fire ; in the engine proper, consisting of stop-cocks, 
cylinder, and piston-work, a mechanical check work, with motive power 
previously supplied ; consequently, as a whole, a general drive work of 
the third order whereby we slight all secondary mechanisms of per- 
mitted masses. 

But if instead of the simple steam engine with its alternate motion 
we consider a crank-engine, we have attached to the check work, in the 
form of the crank motor, a running work, which we can and do use, in 
thousands of forms; but the machine thus becomes in this, its most- 
used variety, a general drive- work of the fourth order. 

Permit me to call attention to still another example taken from steam 
industry upon the railroad. 

In the locomotive just developed we have before us a drive work of 
the fourth order. Next come the drive wheels of the engine as run- 
ning work, friction-wheel work (Eeibrader werk), and joining this loco- 
motive the train gliding over the rails, a self-moving second running- 
work, making, as a whole, a drive work of the sixth order. 

But let our train be of modern form and it will have a Westinghouse 
brake. The reason of the great favor in which this brake is held and 
of its great importance our theory explains as follows : 

The brake itself is a catch work formed from a friction obstruction 
work which we formerly set in motion with the hand. 

Now we manage otherwise. We have with Westinghouse in the form 
of the air battery on the train, indeed on every car, a strong, readily- 
placed tension work which we can at all times easily release through a 
stop cock in the form of an obstructing ratchet, which the brake con- 
tracts. Beginning from above, if we follow the brake apparatus, we 
have before us : The little steam-engine, a check work ; the air pressure 
pump, a leap work ; the mentioned crank mechanism, a check work; 
and the side brake itself, a catch work ; together a drive work and in- 
deed a mechanism of the fifth order ; and if we add thereto, as we 
must, steam-boiler and fire, the whole results as a general drive work 
of the seventh order. Higher numbers of orders certainly do not be- 
long to usual contrivances. 



716 TECHNOLOGY AND CIVILIZATION. 

We may uow turn, without anxiety lest we sacrifice clearness, to the 
side of the most modern of all technical novelties, the electro-mechan- 
ical. Here we recognize in the Galvanic battery, or chain, a chemical 
running worlc, which expression can well be conceded, as it depends upon 
motion excitement, although it beatomical ; the induced physical-elec- 
trical stream, the valves of which are the obstruction ratchet, the con- 
tact, polishing springs, etc., is used in various arts; in telegraphy it 
works in leap work of the second order, provides by relay for release 
and making fast again, and a mechanical running arrangement of writ- 
ing work ; i t results, according to circumstances, from the third to the 
fourth order. 

The usual sound-contrivances of the railroad work in the fifth order, 
chemically in current producers, physically leaping in the anchor pull- 
ing through which a mechanical tension work, that is one bent by the 
hand, is released ; the same drives a check work which again the little 
hammer tension work (Hammerspannwerke) springs, makes taut, and 
then releases. 

Among chemical drive work,' we notice that the tension works take 
a prominent place. Those placed here will be of the number so artis- 
tically prepared by chemists that they give up their tension, or expan- 
sive force, slowly or rapidly. Gunpowder is the most powerful tension 
work, which the naturistical groping Middle Age set in the place of the 
mechanical tension work stretched by the hand of man out of netting, 
bows, and sinews in large and small throwing machines. The purpose 
remaining exactly the same, the kind of tension work was changed. 
The fuse releasing the new tension work was in itself a slow running, 
chemical tension work, entirely separated from the larger. Later we 
got so far as to take the two together in a single contrivance, at first 
in flint-locks, then in percussion locks. There one entered the third 
order. The percussion cap, a chemical tension work rather easily liber- 
ated, is set free by a mechanical tension work attached to the guncock. 
The ball is thrown by a tension work of the third order, as occurs in 
the set- trigger in the fourth order. 

Allow me to say a word concerning a petty example, the match. Not 
two generations have we possessed it, and previous to this brief period 
we manganists, in point of fire kindling, were very nearly on a par with 
the lowest naturists. 

In a natural state, as we know, people, through laboriously acquired 
skill, kindle a fire by rubbing together two pieces of wood; in other 
words, they set free that tension work, heat. The old Greeks used for 
the purpose the pyreion., the under piece of which, called the eschara, 
contained a bore, in which the rubbing piece, the trypanon or borer, 
was inserted and then turned by twisting the hands. 

Ought not in some hidden corner of the Grecian mountains the pyr- 
eion still to be found? It would be very serviceable to bring it to light. 

The little fire-chests containing flint, steel, tinder, and threads dipped 



TECHNOLOGY AND CIVILIZATION. 717 

in sulphur, which iu my earliest childhood I saw used in my home, are 
examples which have kept their places in spite of the all-conquering 
match ; it would be well to have specimens of these preserved in ethno- 
graphical museums. 

Later came steel and flint, a physical tension work used for itself. 
With their help oue kindled — and many still do it to-day — the tinder, 
an easily freed tension work, especially prepared for the purpose and 
consisting at that time of burnt linen. 

On the tinder as soon as it glimmered, was set free a chemical ten- 
sion work rather difficult to release, the thread dipped in sulphur, and 
finally with this, a thin piece of wood, but not for a time a coal. For 
the kindling of the wood alone one used, in succession, four distinct 
tension works, one physical, stone and steel, and three chemical, tinder, 
sulphur, and wood. 

We now see the match fully in the domain of the former developed 
principle. The little important fire tool was made by combining three, 
but soon after four tension works, and is a chemical tension work of the 
fourth order, formed from the tension works phosphorous, chloracid 
kali, sulphur, and wood. For the sulphur, as is known, was later sub- 
stituted in many ways wax or paraffine. But the principle is very 
plainly recognized ; each one of Vie tension works following one upon 
another, is more difficult to set free than its predecessor, but was freed 
definitely, and then through a very easy mechanical action upon the 
little tension work most highly sensitive, the hair-trigger, brought about 
the deliverance, as it were, of each of the four obstructions which had 
caused such trouble, demanding the entire force of one and frequently 
of two men. That the combination of the four tension works was so 
recently attained proves that the fundamental principle of the train of 
thought must have been quite difficult. 

We have now, at last, the manganistical principle fully before us, in a 
common form as well as in the greatest, the examples embracing the 
most powerful forces, down to the finest and smallest, and we can de- 
clare that the method consists : In the cultivation depending upon a sci- 
entific knowledge of the laws of nature, and the resulting higher orders, 
and those standing side by side, of mechanical, physical, and chemical drive 
worh. 

If the foregoing is developed essentially with a consideration of me- 
chanical technical aims, it permits itself to turn without any compul- 
sion upon the precedency of chemical technology and may, therefore, 
be found to embrace in itself the entire problem. One has only, for ex- 
ample, to think of a chemical manufactory, etc., and how sulphuric acid 
enters as a physical and mechanical medium in the colors. As in the 
above both of the others are side by side with the mechanical. 

From the standpoint now gained, if we again consider scientific tech- 
nology, we shall see how its results are closely bound with our life 
habits, indeed, with our entire culture. We may overlook the fact that 



718 TECHNOLOGY AND CIVILIZATION. 

we are directly surrounded in our dwellings by thousands of obstruc- 
tion works which have made our rooms safe, comfortable, and conven- 
ient for light, air, and warmth. We may overlook this because natur- 
istical labor is able to produce similar, although less perfect, results. 
But let us notice other things whereby our dwellings have received their 
character. There is the gas-light in the house, on the street, in the 
public building. We may thank for it a chemical tension work of the 
fourth order — fire, retort, gasometer, conduction by stop-cocks, passing 
by all intermediate works — all of them important, all ramifying through 
the city pipes. The water for house and street necessity, when taken 
from a river-water conduit, furnishes a drive work of at least the sixth 
order. Upon the railroad we move by drive work of a higher order, 
regulate the powerful service with another, by means of drive works 
permit freight to be carried on the rails from place to place, from land 
to land, from one part of the earth to another, a thousand-fold more than 
a person could carry. Throughout the earth by means of physical drive 
work we have the messenger service, both written and spoken. 

How fare we in war? In millions of chemical tension works, large 
and small, generally of higher order, we carry the driving force to the 
distant battlefield and there set it free by means of a high order of drive 
works. 

Upon the ocean we are carried hundreds of miles from land, for weeks 
and months, by means of tension-work activity. 

Eich productions, such as coal, we have gained from nature. The 
naturistical man early found upon the high mountain range the water 
course, that running work subordinated to tension work, and very 
likely the future will bring to light other products, such as petroleum, 
which we may say was discovered three decades ago. This product is a 
highly elastic chemical tension work fitted to play its part under a clear 
flame. In reality it is a combination of two or more chemical tension 
works, each under such slight restraint as to free itself invisibly. 

We had, therefore, to submit this product of nature to a process of 
separation, according to the manganistical principle, into groups of 
small parts easily liberated and on which the tension work was first 
transmissible and generally applicable. Police directions required 
that if the product were made an article of trade the obstruction (sper- 
rung) should be a safe one; but how favorable has been the result. 
This fluid tension work discovered, as it were, " ready made " in nature 
for purposes of illumination, has displaced those products which, by 
the aid of noticeable manganistical implements had previously been 
obtained from the seeds of plants. Let us turn to another phase of 
tension work. The conflagration is but an invisible liberating of a chem- 
ical tension work, as is well proved. The obstruction ratchet is raised in 
opposition to our will with ever-increasing rapidity and the powerful, 
liberated tension work often overleaps our control, but we bring to bear 
upon it for the purpose of its capture, another drive work, formerly 
operated by main strength only, but now usually by chemical tension- 



TECHNOLOGY AND CIVILIZATION. 719 

work under the application of drive works of a still higher order. We 
also turn a chemical tension work, the gas or chemical engine, as the 
Americans call it, which acts instantaneously upon the water being used. 
In the last case the drive work connected with the water is of a very 
low order; this furnishes an example of the manner in which drive 
works contest for the same intended motion aud seek each to gain for 
itself the palm in lessening the number of drive works, that is, the 
height of the order number. Everywhere it is the manganistical 
thought, the manganistical principle whereby we in part preserve, in 
part make easier, in part defend our life, and- whereby we also advance 
aunihilatingly against others. 

Our industries, finally, which produce as well the necessities as the 
manganistical mechanisms, what have they not brought about for cul- 
ture advancement by means of this same manganistical principle ? Here 
let us venture a little nearer by attempting to apply a measure. 

Coal serves us as an essential assistant in manganistical labor. This is 
now obtained in an abundance of over 400,000,000 tons, the greater part 
annually converted toiudustrial purposes. The surplus above 400,000,000 
tons suffices to cover heating necessities. So we have for each of the 
300 working days of the year one and one-third million tons of coal, 
which are used for chemical, mechanical, and physical- technical pur- 
poses. If we sum up the entire labor arrived at therewith for the sake 
of the survey of dynamical execution, the results under this acceptation 
of uses of coal show LJ kilograms for horse-power in a working day of 
12 hours, i. e., 4J tons per hour during the year, together with the horse. 
A horse-power, in round numbers, of 90,OOD,000, statistical numbers and 
taxes, in fact, would in dynamics yield 20,000,000. For every horse- 
power must be reckoned the working force of six strong men, which 
results in 540,000,000 active man-power during a day of 12 hours. It 
is this powerful executive force which the 250,000,000 of Atlantic na- 
tions entirely alone (since the other 1,250,000,000 of naturists have 
added nothing to it) have accomplished by man through the mangan- 
istical principle ! When we consider that every tenth one of the 
1,250,000,000 men exerts daily such labor as before contemplated, prob- 
ably a much too high estimate, there results an execution of 125,000,000 
man-power. We Atlantic peoples, a sixth of the earth's inhabitants, 
perform by our manganistic labor more than four times as much as 
those can execute. The superiority of the mangauist over the naturist 
is attained and reimbursed through useful labor, and thereby also 
reaches, taken only humanly, its right. This so much the more as our 
labor execution is transmitted to each of them. I speak of the great, 
entire development, and not perhaps of its still existing deficiencies, to 
the extension and under the extension of culture and civilization. 

So, then, has scientific technology become the bearer of culture, the 
powerful, tireless laborer in the service of civilization and cultivation 
of the races of men, and promises for a long future to add a line of 
greater results than is at present attained. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



027 988 446 2 



i iRRARY OF CONGRESS 

027 988 446 2 



Conservation Resources 
Ug-Free® Type I 
Pfa 8.5, Buffered 



